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Robert Herjavec, 52, is one of North America's most recognizable business leaders.

Born in Varaždin, Croatia (formerly Yugoslavia), he came to Canada with his parents when he was eight. From delivering newspapers and waiting tables, to launching a computer company from his basement, he is extremely driven, both in life and on the race track.

Herjavec has built and sold several IT companies. In 2003, he founded Herjavec Group and it quickly became one of North America’s fastest growing technology companies. Today, Herjavec Group is recognized as a global leader in information security.

He is also a best-selling author. “Driven” and “The Will to Win” were simultaneously Top Ten best-sellers.

A former dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den, Herjavec also enjoys sharing his expertise with other entrepreneurs and is one of the sharks on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning TV series, Shark Tank.

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For the past four years, he’s raced a Ferrari (numbered 007) for Herjavec Group Racing in the North American Ferrari Challenge Series, achieving multiple podiums and winning Rookie of The Year in 2011.

We recently sat down during the Ferrari Challenge race weekend at the Daytona International Speedway. He was about to compete in one of the support races — he went on to win first in class — leading up to the 53rd running of the Rolex-sponsored 24 Hours of Daytona sports car classic.

When asked what it’s like racing at the legendary track, Herjavec responded: “It’s awe-inspiring. Normally, when we go to a track, you practice on Friday and Saturday and by Sunday, it doesn’t feel as fast because you get used to it.

“Here, with the oval, it never feels slow. It’s incredible. I have a lot of respect for this place — I broke three ribs here a year ago in practice. It’s not that technical a track; every little movement makes a massive difference.”

Here is the rest of the interview.

You have been quoted as saying that you have to stay laser-focused when driving a car over 200 miles an hour, and the same approach is required when growing a business in today’s world of rapidly changing technology.

“For sure you have to be laser-focused but I found that I was overlapping those worlds. I was on my phone, laser-focused on my work, as I was getting into the car. A friend of mine said — I don’t know if this is true or not — that it takes the human brain an hour to forget information. So now I have a new rule: I don’t look at my phone two hours before I get in the car. It’s much better when you don’t hit things in racing — for the body and the car!”

It’s a new year, a new racing season, new economy, how are you feeling about 2015, both at work and at play?

“I think the Canadian economy is cutting a duel edge. Because of the low oil prices, the resource sector always suffers, but I really think that we are going to see consumer spending increase. Interest rates have come down again and the cost of money is basically zero. I think it is going to be a very good couple of years. That may lead to problems five years from now, but I feel very good about the economy (now). My sector of the economy is on fire and we don’t usually get affected by market conditions.”

And will your racing year be on fire too?

“Well, I had a great season last year. I came in second overall. As a result of that, I was moved up a class, which is a good and a bad thing. It’s challenging, and that’s the purpose of our series. They (Ferrari) do a great job of pushing people at the same skillset.

“We are very fortunate that we have a great team, I’m not sure all of the teams are as tight as we are. Everybody here comes from different means; everybody is successful in their own fields. But here, you’re just one of the guys. Nobody treats you any differently.”

How is showbiz shaping up in 2015?

“It’s great. Shark Tank is on fire; we just had our highest-rated show, we hit almost 10 million viewers (in the U.S.). Now we’re doing a new show called Beyond The Tank, which is going to air an hour before Shark Tank. It’s a much more detailed follow-up show, to the follow-ups we are doing on Shark Tank. We are going to show the good and the bad in much more detail.”

Will you be racing in the full Ferrari Challenge season this year?

“I wasn’t going to, but now that I can see that I can run with these guys, I think I am. I love it. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it forces you to focus. And we go to great tracks — we were in Dubai just a month and a half ago, it’s fantastic.

“It’s very difficult to have a bad day on a race track. It’s remarkable how we’re all doing this for fun, but when we show up it’s almost like a suspension of belief. We’re so serious about it. I brought a friend of mine to see it, and she said, ‘Let me understand this, you don’t get paid to do this (in fact it is quite the opposite), you’re not a professional, you have no chance to become a professional, so basically you’re playing golf?’ And that’s what we are. It’s a leisure pursuit, at a higher level.”

Herjavec’s extremely rare Ferrari LaFerrari will be featured in the Toronto Star booth at this year’s Canadian International Auto Show, which starts at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Friday, Feb. 13. All 499 LaFerrari models were pre-sold at a list price of US$1.4 million.

The LaFerrari is the first hybrid from Ferrari. Its 6.3 litre V12 generates 788 horsepower; its HY-KERS electric motor generates an additional 161 horsepower for a combined total of 949 horsepower.

What’s it like owning a LaFerrari?

“I got the first one in Canada, five months ago. I went to the dealership to pick it up, and by the time I got there, it was pouring rain. So they told me to come back another time. But I was so busy travelling, I said no — and because I promised my son I would take it to show it to him. He’s at Wilfrid Laurier University.

“So I’m driving to Waterloo and on the way, it really starts to pour. The car is hydroplaning and I’m driving this one-thousand-horsepower car! I’m in the left lane but I’m hydroplaning over to the right lane. I’m thinking to myself that this was not a good idea. But then the positive side of me says, but think about all the great PR I’m going to get for wiping out the first LaFerrari in Canada!

“So I showed it to my son, and we took it through the Tim Horton’s drive-through. I just had to. It went crazy on Twitter. It’s a remarkable car. Really remarkable. It is so quick that you have a hard time adjusting to how quick it is. You’re here, and you want to go there, and you’re there before you mind can comprehend you’re there.

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